The present invention relates to an apparatus, and system, for recording and reproducing contents that is convenient to use and allows reproduction of contents using a different device.
In a conventional technique, an information terminal including communication means and external storage means storing a key for decrypting encrypted data are provided in order to implement temporary sharing of contents data among a plurality of terminals while preventing digital contents from being illegally copied. When referring to encrypted data recorded in the information terminal, the key for decrypting the encrypted data recorded in the external storage means is temporarily copied into storage means in the information terminal. The number of times data is decrypted by using the copied key is limited (for example, see JP-A-2002-190795).